Shared genetics between classes of obesity and psychiatric disorders: A large-scale genome-wide cross-trait analysis

Epidemiological studies demonstrate an association between classes of obesity and psychiatric disorders, although little is known about shared genetics and causality of association. Thus, we aimed to investigate shared genetics and causal link between different classes of obesity and psychiatric disorders.

We used genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary data range from 9725 to 500,199 sample sizes of European descent, conducted a large-scale genome-wide cross-trait association study to investigate genetic overlap between the classes of obesity and anorexia nervosa, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders and Tourette syndrome. We conducted transcriptome-wide association study analysis (TWAS) to identified variants regulated gene expression in those related disorders. Finally, pathway enrichment analysis to identified major pathways.

In the combined analysis, we replicated 211 previously reported loci and discovered 58 novel independent loci that were associated with all three classes of obesity and related psychiatric disorders. Functional analysis revealed that the identified variants regulated gene expression in major tissues belonging to exocrine/endocrine, digestive, circulatory, adipose, digestive, respiratory, and nervous systems, such as DCC, NEGR1, INO80E. Mendelian randomization analyses suggested that there may be a two-way or one-way causal relationship between obesity and psychiatric disorders.

This large-scale genome-wide cross-trait analysis identified shared genetics and potential causal links between classes of obesity and psychiatric disorders (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, anorexia nervosa, major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder). Such shared genetics suggests potential new biological functions in common among them.